Marketing Tools: 6 Inexpensive Ideas that Promote Business

Marketing is crucial for every business entity. Low budgets prevent small businesses from tapping expensive marketing and advertising channels, such as television and print media. The good news is that there are a number of cost-effective ways of marketing your products and services.

Here are 6 inexpensive ways of promoting your business.

Networking

Networking is one of the most powerful, yet economical ways of identifying new business opportunities. Get referrals from your friends, colleagues, neighbors and relatives. Spread as much word about your services as possible. Request your friends to do the same. People feel more comfortable when they hear about your business from someone they trust.

Reach your Local Community

Get in touch with your local community and inform them about your business services. Blogging is an effective way of reaching out to people in your local community. You can write blog posts on the problems your potential customers face and proposal solutions for those problems.

You should also consider getting in touch with the Small Business Administration to find opportunities in your neighboring areas.

Social Media

Social media is a cost-effective way of marketing your business. Create a Facebook page and start connecting with potential customers. Facebook also offers a cost-effective advertising model that allows small businesses to find new customers.

If you have a blog or a website, you should consider optimizing it for the search engines. This will send plenty of free traffic to your website. Search engine optimization is the process of ranking a website for relevant keywords. For instance, a printing company in Vancouver may consider optimizing its website for keywords, such as “printing services Vancouver.” When a user searches this keyword using a search engine like Google or Bing, it will display results that are most-relevant to the search term. Optimizing a website improves its search engine score, allowing it to appear in the top search results for relevant keywords.

eBook

Writing an eBook is a simple, yet effective way of sharing your knowledge with others. As you publish more and more books related to your business niche, people start recognizing you as an authority on the subject. This lets you extend your area of influence, expanding your customer base along the way.

Guerilla marketing is an effective way of creating buzz around your product or service. Create some catchy articles, images and videos around your business to attract new viewers who may convert into future customers. An image or video that goes viral can easily get you thousands of views within a few hours, if not minutes.
At all times, make sure that you own rights to the promotional content that you use.